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Shumlin: VT unable to host 1,000 immigrant kids

April Burbank, Free Press Staff Writer 4:54 p.m. EDT July 29, 2014

A young migrant girl waits for a freight train to depart on July 12 on her way to the U.S. border, in Ixtepec, Mexico. Immigrants’ rights advocates in the U.S. say they are seeing more children from Central America who are not only fleeing gang recruitment and random violence, but who have been targeted themselves.(Photo: Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press)

Vermont lacks the capacity to host a large number of unaccompanied immigrant children, Gov. Peter Shumlin wrote to the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday.

The federal government had asked Vermont and other states whether there was a 90,000-square-foot facility that could host up to 1,000 children. Vermont looked for options in Burlington and statewide.

Vermont can only offer smaller facilities that would hold 75 to 100 children, Shumlin replied in the letter to Christie Hager, director of the New England region for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"Should the Agency decide to look into smaller scale options, please let us know," Shumlin wrote. "Our ability to pursue any particular choice will depend on further local and community engagement and an understanding of the federal support and oversight that would accompany such a situation."

Vermont has also offered to "assist" Massachusetts in its offer to host children at military bases, Shumlin wrote.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has apprehended about 57,000 unaccompanied minors, many from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, who crossed the southwest border since October.

That is about 30,000 more unaccompanied children than were apprehended in the previous year.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for caring for the children.

"Our heart go out to the families — parents and children — who have made these dangerous journeys and are now in custody," Gov. Shumlin wrote. "We support your efforts to find a safe and humane solution to this serious problem. Please let us know if we can help."

Many of the children have left the shelters and have been placed with sponsors, usually parents or relatives, as they continue through immigration proceedings. Others remain in the care of the government until they go before an immigration judge, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement website.

Three children have been placed with sponsors in Vermont since January, according to statistics released last week by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.